Well it started for me when I was a little boy. My brother and I wanted to start trapping because the 700 hogs we had when we were 11 just wasn't enough work for us. After a season of trapping dad said he didn't think we would stick with it so the next Christmas he bought us both a shotgun. WOW talk about excited kids, we ran outside in our pajamasin about three foot of snow and both shot our new shiny shotguns in the air. The same day he took us pheasant hunting where I actually killed my first quail. What a rush. The next deer season my dad hands us both a note about a week before to give to our teachers. It said that me and my brother would be gone for the whole next week for deer season. Yep a whole week off of school. No deer my first season but I made sure that the barrell didn't have any cobwebs in it.
So I guess the reason I hunt is because it was something that my dad wanted to do with his boys. My dad has aged now and can no longer hunt with me but every year I ask him if he wants to go. Same answer always, yes he wants to but his body doesn't. I tell him he can just sit and I will push the deer to him but that isn't how my dad likes to hunt and I have to respect that.
I guess what it all boils down too is that it started out as something I could do with my dad because we weren't really that close but have grown to be over the years. But now it is a passion of being one with my surroundings.
The best thing I ever did was starting bowhunting it is like nothing else in my life next too my family.
It's not the rush for me it is thinking back on all the past hunts with the people I hold dear in my life and the opportunity to be out there with nature.